Astronauts suited up for a spacewalk in 2001, top,
and on the International Space Station. Movie image courtesy A.M.P.A.S.

2001: A Space Odyssey is an epic science fiction film (1968)1,
2, 3 directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on Arthur C. Clarke's
short story, "The Sentinel" (1948).4 In Clarke's tale, a crystal
pyramid placed on the Moon long ago by an advanced
extraterrestrial race serves to notify its creators when it is finally disturbed
by explorers from Earth (see sentinel
hypothesis):

[T]hey left a sentinel,
one of millions they have scattered throughout the universe, watching
over all the worlds with the promise of life. It was a beacon that down
the ages has been patiently signaling the fact that no one had discovered
it... [W]e found the pyramid and forced it open. Now its signals have
ceased, and those whose duty it is will be turning their minds upon Earth.
In the film, the sentinels take the form of enigmatic black monoliths that
monitor human evolution, from cave-dwelling stage to space-faring, and also
influence and accelerate mankind's development by supplying valuable information
at crucial moments. The aliens themselves are never shown and the film ends,
in surreal style, with the transformation of astronaut Dave Bowman into
a "star child."

There are three main sections to the film. The first depicts prehistoric
Earth, where families of man-apes live in fear of predators until an alien
monolith appears in their midst. After touching it, they quickly evolve
to use primitive tools and weapons, enabling them to gain the upper hand
against their prey and adversaries. In one of the most famous scenes in
cinematography, an ape tosses a bone into the air where it is replaced by
the image of a satellite in space, an editing trick that advances the story
millions of years into the future in the span of only a few seconds. In
the second section of the movie, astronaut bureaucrats discover another
monolith buried on the Moon and when sunlight touches it for the first time
in millions of years, it sends a powerful signal to Jupiter.
In the final section, humans mount a space mission to Jupiter where another
monolith is orbiting. But things go terribly wrong when the spacecraft's
computer, known as HAL 9000, goes insane and kills all but one member of
the crew. The sole survivor, David Bowman, disconnects HAL and approaches
the monolith. He passes through a fantastic light show (during showings
many people would apparently take psychedelic drugs and, at this point in
the movie, sit in the front rows of the theater). In a bizarre, and for
many people highly confusing, final scene, Bowman grows into an old man
alone, in the presence of the monolith. Just before his natural death, he
is transformed into a baby who, in the final scene, is depicted overlooking
the Earth. The sequence symbolized the continuing evolution of humanity
into something greater than it is, with alien assistance.

Spacecraft consultants Frederick Ordway and
Harry Lange, who had worked for NASA, persuaded companies such as Boeing
and IBM to supply prototypes and technical documents for use in the film.
Astronauts visiting the set at Borehamwood referred to it as "NASA East."

Clarke produced a novelization of the film5 but located the "Star
Gate" near Saturn's moon Iapetus rather than, as in the screen version, in orbit around Jupiter – a serendipitous choice given that Iapetus was subsequently found
to have the highest visual contrast of any moon in the solar system, leading
to some half-serious suggestions that it might be artificial.6 Although the sequel novels and film, 2010: Odyssey Two7 (1982; film, 1984), 2061: Odyssey Three8 (1988), and 3001:
Final Odyssey9 (1997), were less successful, the impact of
2001 itself continues to be felt today.

Cultural impact
of 2001

2001: A Space Odyssey initially provoked mixed reactions from film
critics and the public. It was highly unusual because it had very little
dialogue, instead trying to tell its story through imagery.

Although the movie was not universally praised when it first premiered,
it soon came to be widely regarded as a classic by film critics and historians.
It was praised for its visual inventiveness, its originality and symbolism,
its sound and visual special effects and its musical score. Movies that
came after 2001 reflected many of its influences. For instance, Kubrick
had originally hired a music composer to write a score for the film and
provided him with examples of classical compositions that he thought illustrated
the mood he wanted to convey. But ultimately Kubrick discarded the composer's
work and used the classical music he had selected instead. Kubrick used
Strauss' "Blue Danube Waltz" as background for the docking of a space shuttle
with a space station. Not only did recordings of Strauss' music suddenly
become very popular, but the music was also used in other films and TV shows,
often as a comic or ironic homage to 2001. It was even played on
the Apollo 8 mission around the moon. Similarly,
Kubrick used the theme from Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Thus
Spake Zarathustra) in the opening of the movie to illustrate a dramatic
appearance, and the theme was thereafter used for everything from high school
graduations to beer commercials.

2001's sound effects
had an impact on other films. 2001 was among the first movies to realistically
not have sounds in space. (The first of all may have been Destination
Moon.) Kubrick was able to symbolize the death of one character
by stopping the breathing sounds in his spacesuit. He killed off several
other hibernating humans by showing only their computerized monitoring equipment
change from the pulses of respiration and breathing to flat lines, "death
as a statistic" as one commentator called it. Other movies and TV shows
began to use similar techniques, attempting to portray events visually or
through sounds that normally would have been portrayed with dialogue. 2001's
realistic technological approach to depicting the near-term future of space
exploration also had a strong influence on other movies and television shows,
often of far lesser quality. Some copied it, whereas others rebelled against
Kubrick's vision of the future. The dirty, gritty spaceships of Star
Wars (1977) and particularly Alien (1978) were designed in direct contrast to the gleaming white plastic future
of 2001, as was the dark, grimy world of Blade Runner (1982). The sentient, murderous HAL 9000 computer has also provoked scientific
debates about the development of artificial
intelligence.

But perhaps 2001's most profound cultural impact was its effect
on how people visualize space exploration. As space historian Howard McCurdy
has noted, 2001 established the popular image of what a space
station should look like. When Americans are asked to draw a space station,
they almost inevitably draw a giant spinning wheel in orbit, undoubtedly
based upon their exposure to 2001. Perhaps more subtly, 2001 created expectations in the minds of people that the United States would
continue to aggressively pursue space exploration after Apollo and would soon develop giant orbiting space stations and bases on the Moon.
When Kubrick made 2001 in the midst of the Apollo program, his
advisors did not think that bases on the Moon and missions to Jupiter would
be extremely far-fetched 40 years in the future. When the actual year 2001 rolled around, however, various newspaper and magazine articles either lamented
that the world had not lived up to their false expectations, or snorted
that the movie had "gotten the future wrong." As at least one comic joked,
"It's the twenty-first century; how come my car doesn't fly?" Space exploration
enthusiasts viewed 2001 as a positive predictor of the future and
were disappointed that reality did not live up to their dreams. These false
expectations even tended to cloud official planning for space exploration.
Yet, as some have noted, the real world of 2001 did have its space stations
and space shuttles, but they somehow seemed less exciting than the movie
versions.

Many of these people tended to completely misread the movie. Unlike the
positive humanistic future of Star Trek,
Kubrick's depiction of a gleaming white antiseptic future was actually a
dark vision and a warning that technology dehumanized people, turning them
into boring drones, or bureaucrats. Various critics noted over the years
that the humans in 2001 exhibited few emotions and HAL, the homicidal machine
that they built, was in many ways the most human character in the film.
Furthermore, Kubrick and Clarke were trying to tell a story, not predict
the future. Nobody laments that the world was not destroyed as predicted
by various apocalyptic movies such as The Terminator and The
Shape of Things to Come. But it is a testament to the power of 2001:
A Space Odyssey that people were actually disappointed that the future
did not turn out like the movie. [Source: U.S. Centennial
of Flight Commission / Dwayne Day]

Then and now

Some aspects of the future envisioned in 2001 have been borne out in today's
reality:

Although different in size and shape, the International
Space Station (ISS) is permanently crewed and multi-national and
moves in low Earth orbit.

Flat-screen computer monitors that were unheard of in 1968 are now
commonly used on the ISS.

The glass cockpits in 2001's spacecraft are now present on the flight
deck of the space shuttle.

The film also envisions in-flight entertainment in space. Today there
are DVDs, iPods, and computers with e-mail access.

Another famous scene from the movie depicts an astronaut jogging aboard
the Jupiter ship Discovery. Aboard the ISS, exercise in space
is routine. In April 2007, 210 miles above Earth, astronaut Sunita Williams
ran the Boston Marathon while in orbit.

Although some of the things in the film are not yet realities, some of them
are in the works. For example, although we haven't yet colonized the Moon,
NASA has a plan in place to return to the Moon by 2020 and maintain a presence
there. Other ventures in space, such as hotels in orbit and routine tourist
space travel are being planned by commercial spaceflight companies.

Along with the 40th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2008 also marked
the 50th anniversary of NASA. [Text and images for this section
come from the NASA web page 1968
Science Fiction is Today's Reality.]